Share the love this Mother’s Day, with a delicious home-cooked breakfast in
bed that children, and even men, can make.

Mothering Sunday is the real deal. Unlike other “Days” such as Father’s Day, it is a proper date in the British calendar rather than simply a cynical creation of the greetings card industry.

Sure, it was probably as much to do with the Mother Church as mothers in general. The fourth Sunday of Lent, “Laetare Sunday”, was a small respite from its rigours. Servants were allowed to go home and see their families. If they were lucky, their employers would have given them the run of the store cupboard to bake a rich, expensive fruit cake with marzipan icing: Simnel cake, as it came to be called much later.

These days, most mothers would rather have breakfast in bed than fruit cake: kids, partners, husbands, take note. This should earn you enough brownie points to see you through the week, if not the whole year. So it’s worth taking a little trouble.

Find a tray, and put a cloth on it, not to be kitsch, but because it stops everything sliding about. Make real coffee with a jug of hot milk, or a pot of tea. Really tiny children can layer berries, yogurt and granola in a tumbler while older kids can tackle sweet Scotch pancakes or smoked salmon and poached eggs.

Bring it to the bedroom and bask in maternal approval. Then eat the leftovers. It has to beat tidying your room.

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Delicious thick hot pancakes scented with orange and cinnamon. Eat them with berries (imported at this time of year, but for once I’m not going to worry) and some pieces of orange, ideally stripped of their membrane – see the instructions below.

100g self-raising flour

30g caster sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 large egg

Grated zest of an orange

100ml milk

1 tsp vegetable oil

To serve:

One orange, cut into segments (see below) or half a mango, peeled

A handful of blueberries

A dollop of cream or crème fraîche

Maple syrup

A few mint leaves

• Put the flour, sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt into a bowl, and whisk together to mix.

• Make a hollow in the middle of the flour mixture, and break in the egg.

• Add the orange zest and use the whisk to mix with the egg. Keep whisking, so the flour gradually mixes in with the egg.

• Add the milk gradually, whisking as you go, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

• Put the oil in the pan and put on a medium heat. Once the pan is hot, tip so the surface is coated in oil.

• Pour a tablespoonful of mixture in the pan, to make a small round pancake. Add one or two more, making sure they stay well apart.

• After a couple of minutes, little bubbles will start popping on the top of each spoonful. When the surface is covered with little holes and the Scotch pancakes are deep golden brown underneath, turn them over with a fish slice. Cook them on the other side for another minute, so they are golden on both sides.

• Keep the Scotch pancakes warm, wrapped in a tea towel. Cook the rest of the mixture in the same way.

• Mix the fruit with 1 tablespoon maple syrup. Layer three of the pancakes with the fruit mixture. Serve with a little more fruit on top, cream and extra maple syrup, plus a scattering of mint leaves.

Segmenting an orange

• You’ll need a sharp serrated knife for this so it is strictly one for grown ups and competent teens.

• With the knife, cut a thick slice off the top and the bottom of the orange. Put the orange bottom down on a work surface.

• Spear the orange through the top with a fork, and hold it steady. Cut off the peel around the sides in thick slices, cutting from top to bottom and following the curved shape of the orange.

• Still using the fork to hold the orange, cut the wedge-shaped segments of orange out from between the layers of membrane. Don’t worry if it gets a bit messy towards the end.

• Put the segments in a bowl and squeeze the juice from the last bits of membrane over them.

Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon (eggs royale)

Possibly the best breakfast of all time. Use eggs benedict with smoked salmon instead of ham. It’s fine to use ready-made hollandaise – I like the version sold in a jar by Pollen Organics. Or if you are feeling up to it, make you own – see recipe below.

Poaching eggs strikes fear in the heart of even experienced cooks, but I promise it is easy provided your eggs are reasonably fresh. Look for the sell by date on the box. It is set at three weeks after the eggs were laid, so try to find some with at least two weeks left to run.

Some people add a splash of vinegar to the poaching water, as acid helps coagulate the egg white more quickly, in theory making them neater. It’s not really necessary though and it can make the eggs taste a bit vinegary – not good unless you like pickled eggs.

1 really fresh egg

1 English muffin

1 slice of smoked salmon

A few sprigs of dill (optional)

3 tbsp hollandaise sauce

• Bring a pan (one with a lid) half full of water to the boil. Split the muffin and toast it on the cut sides. Butter one half.

• If you are using ready-made hollandaise, heat it through gently in a small pan, stirring often, until it is warm. Don’t boil it. Stir the chopped dill into the hollandaise.

• Now poach your egg. Turn the heat down underneath the pan of boiling water as low as it can go. Break the egg into a cup and slip it into the water. Put a lid on the pan and turn off the heat.

• Leave the pan to sit for five minutes or so, until the egg white is set and opaque.

• Lift the egg out with a slotted spoon, drain well and blot it gently with kitchen paper. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to trim off any straggly bits hanging over the edge of the spoon.

• Top the buttered muffin with smoked salmon and grind over a little black pepper. Slip the egg on top. Spoon over the hollandaise and top with a sprig of dill.

Easy hollandaise

Making proper hollandaise for breakfast is strictly for professionals. This cheat’s version isn’t quite the same as the traditional deep yellow unguent, painstakingly stirred in a double boiler, but it’s delicious all the same. You’ll make more than you need for one person here, so eat the rest yourself on more poached eggs or steamed purple sprouting broccoli.

There’s raw eggs in the mix, so clearly it’s not for pregnant or otherwise vulnerable people.

2 egg yolks

1 tbsp lemon juice

100g butter

• Melt the butter in a small pan and heat until it is bubbling.

• Put the egg yolks in a small food processor or blender with a pinch of salt and the lemon juice, and whizz until smooth.

• With the motor running, pour in the butter in a thin stream. Leave the last tablespoonful or so (which will probably be a milky liquid) behind in the pan.

• Scrape down the blender or processor and whizz again until smooth. Taste and add more salt, pepper or lemon juice to taste. Serve straight away while it is still warm.

Perfect plunger coffee

Check how much water the pot holds. For each 100ml water, put 1 tablespoon ground coffee in the pot. Boil the kettle and leave to stand for a count of 10 before pouring over the coffee. Leave to stand for four minutes, then push down the plunger.